Exotic many-body states in dipolar quantum Bose gases of magnetic atoms
Lauriane Chomaz (University of Heidelberg) talks about “Exotic many-body states in dipolar quantum Bose gases of magnetic atoms” at 4pm UK time.
Ultracold quantum gases provide a pristine platform to study few-body and many-body quantum phenomena with an exquisite degree of control.
The achievement of quantum degeneracy in gases of atoms with large magnetic dipole moments in their electronic ground states has opened up new avenues of research in which long-range anisotropic dipole-dipole interactions play a crucial role.
In the case of Bose gases, these interactions compete with the conventional short-range contact interactions, and thanks to so-called Feshbach resonances, this competition can be tuned by changing the strength of the contact forces.
In the case of the most magnetic atoms (erbium and dysprosium), fine control of this interaction competition has led to the discovery of novel many-body quantum states.
These states include elementary excitations such as the roton modes and equilibrium states such as liquid-like droplets, droplet crystals and supersolids, a paradoxical phase of matter that simultaneously exhibits solid and superfluid orders.
A unique mechanism, based on the effect of quantum fluctuations themselves, underlies the stabilisation of these new phases.
In my talk, I will review the experimental research progress made in the field of magnetic dipolar gases over the last few years, highlight key results obtained in my former working group in Innsbruck, and finally discuss the future research directions that I am developing in my new research group in Heidelberg, focusing on quantum gases of magnetic atoms in lower dimensional spaces, in and out of equilibrium.